Who We Are
1971, for many it's just a number, another year on the calendar, but for Jon Schultz, it was just the beginning of something special. It was in that year he began working with his father in law, Fritz. Fritz grew Christmas trees, made wreaths and garland, and did just about anything he could to earn a dollar. Jon watched and learned, becoming fully involved in the business. A few years after he caught his first “break” Fritz gave him a few wreath and garland customers, so he could go on his own and start his own business.
Every business needs a name, they sat around brainstorming ideas one night and he recalls Fritz telling him “you need something that says, Up North, Great North, Northern something, you want your customers to know their products are coming from the great Northwoods of Wisconsin.” That was it; Northwoods, Northwoods Evergreen and with that he had a name for his business.
There was very little machinery available to produce garland, most of the garlands were hand wrapped or made on some sort of clunky, homemade contraption that would send your friendly OSHA field inspector into an early retirement. My grandpa, Bob was an engineer at Allis Chalmers, Ford Motor Company and Superintendent of Maintenance for Brokaw Paper Mill. The words clunky, homemade contraption were not in his vocabulary. He was matter of fact and had the knowledge and skills to back it up. This is where the first real innovation in the garland industry was born. Him and my Dad together came up with the Honey Bee Garland Machine, these machines were safe, quiet and trouble free.
Much like the insect of its namesake, the Honey Bee just works, and work it did; with the first model were producing 1500’-2000’ of beautiful two sided garland per day. We still have the original machine here at the shop, it was built in 1975, it still works, and we still use it from time to time.
In those days the competition in the wreath and garland business was tough, there was no internet, Instagram, Facebook or Constant Contact to do your marking for you. Using pocket change he saved up over fall and winter, he went out on the road selling. Jon’s first sales were all cold calls to flower shops in Iowa. He would rip the florist section out of the yellow pages at a phone booth (remember those) and go down the line calling every flower shop hoping to get a meeting. He often recalls it being so hot in his black station wagon that he kept extra clean shirts just to go inside and look presentable. There were a lot of “NO’s” in those sales trips, as most flower shops had their suppliers and were not looking for new suppliers. In the end those trips did pay off as he would eventually come home with enough orders to have a full season of production.
In the late 70’s-early 80’s there was not much for Christmas Supplies available. At this point in his business he had a few customers and always had a few extra wreath rings and rolls of red ribbon on hand. People would stop and buy 5-10 rings and enough ribbon to decorate these wreaths. This sparked something inside of him, maybe he could buy extra rings and ribbon, then go and try to sell them. Well by God wouldn’t you know it but it worked. People started buying rings, ribbon, pinecones, and other small items from my Dad. His first show room was a “shelf” in his garage/wreath shop that had 6 or so rolls of red plastic ribbon, a few rolls of velvet and some rolls of wire. Northwoods Evergreen and Wire, people often ask what the “wire” means in the business name. 1984 when his Grandpa passed away he left $4000 to my dad. Most people would have bought a three-wheeler, boat, deer rifle, or spent it at the bar. Not Dad, he bought wire and with the help of his Dad once again they built a machine that could wind the small paddles of wire for hand wrapping wreaths and the small spools for the Honey Bee Garland Machine. This was the birth of the wire business.
June of 1989, peak White Pine shearing in Wautoma, Dad was shearing a field of trees when the campground manager came and got him. Your wife is going into labor, she’s having the baby. Nervous, excited, scared; he jumped in the truck all full of pitch and dirt from shearing the last few days (they slept in tents at a local campground in shearing season) and hightailed for Wausau Hospital. Afraid that if he took the time to clean up, he would miss the birth, he went straight to the hospital from the tree field. Well, it wasn’t the case, and it took me another six hours to be born after he arrived. That’s where I come into the picture. I was technically, almost, kind of born with a shearing knife in my hand. I was still too young to help in the business, I was just born after all, but it wasn’t long before I could find my place in the business. I grew up around trees, wreaths, garlands and Christmas Supplies. When I was young my Dad still worked construction, building houses and apartment buildings. His business continued to grow, he was always looking for the newest technology and ideas to help his business. I recall him emailing customers and vendors and there was always a computer with spread sheets or some sort of inventory program going. This was in the early 90’s when computers were complicated, expensive and still looked down upon. He embraced technology.
I began doing trade shows at a very young age, the first one I really remember was at Steve Latzig’s here in Merrill, I don’t recall the year but I’m sure some of you do. I’ll never forget sitting on the John Deere Gator dreaming one day I could drive one of those. Well I never got the John Deere Gator, but I did get to go to over 100 trade shows all over the mid-west, visiting almost every little and big tree farm along the way. Once I was old enough (6 or 7 years old) I was on the road with my dad to all the trade shows, it was some great memories. I watched and learned everything I could, always wanting to make a huge sale, and win a Tim Mitchell Drill Machine, this another story for another day. We grew up loading trucks, cutting and bailing trees counting wreaths and throwing 10’s of thousands of 50# bundles of boughs. After high school I took a few marking classes at NTC, I felt like it was a refresher course. When you grow up selling and doing business with your dad there is not much a college professor can show you, but I did learn a few essential skills. My focus in those times was on our website and catalog, I wanted to make it look professional, well laid out and easy to use. We had been working through a salesman relaying our wants and needs for the catalog back and forth for years. Finally enough was enough I wanted major changes to the book and I was the only person to do it. Back at NTC, I learned Adobe Photoshop and InDesign, the programs that all major publications, books, newspapers, and magazines were created on. I had great instructors and we even took on the company catalog as our class project, it was one of the best decisions I made.
June of 1989, peak White Pine shearing in Wautoma, Dad was shearing a field of trees when the campground manager came and got him. Your wife is going into labor, she’s having the baby. Nervous, excited, scared; he jumped in the truck all full of pitch and dirt from shearing the last few days (they slept in tents at a local campground in shearing season) and hightailed for Wausau Hospital. Afraid that if he took the time to clean up, he would miss the birth, he went straight to the hospital from the tree field. Well, it wasn’t the case, and it took me another six hours to be born after he arrived. That’s where I come into the picture. I was technically, almost, kind of born with a shearing knife in my hand. I was still too young to help in the business, I was just born after all, but it wasn’t long before I could find my place in the business. I grew up around trees, wreaths, garlands and Christmas Supplies. When I was young my Dad still worked construction, building houses and apartment buildings. His business continued to grow, he was always looking for the newest technology and ideas to help his business. I recall him emailing customers and vendors and there was always a computer with spread sheets or some sort of inventory program going. This was in the early 90’s when computers were complicated, expensive and still looked down upon. He embraced technology.